Zombie Vikings is a charmingly designed beat-'em-up, but it's ultimately a fairly shallow one. It's fine for a multiplayer laugh, and even single player has its moments thanks to the humorous plot, but it's only likely to amuse you once, before you leave it on your hard drive waiting to rot.
Its narrative is lacklustre and it’s over with far too quickly, but FATED: The Silent Oath has moments of strong immersion within a well-build but underused world.
Turns out playing with yourself is a lot of fun. Who knew? However, despite some neat Easter eggs, the fun of slaughtering cartoon spectators with balls and rackets, and the pleasantly compelling tennis itself, there’s very little content on offer for the price.
A great first impression soon fails to deliver on its potential, with the promise of time travelling adventure soon falling to education. Mind you, getting eaten by massive underwater monsters is really cool.
Gunjack’s slim ties to the EVE universe don't stop it from being a thoroughly entertaining arcade shooter that recreates the cockpit-shooter/light-gun genre within a VR space wonderfully without the need for peripherals or huge enclosures.
The Assembly is a good idea with great building blocks for its intended exploration and puzzle mechanics but it feels somewhat undeveloped. It'll no doubt leave you intrigued yet ultimately pining for more.
The VR feels more like a delightful addition rather than an integral part of the experience, but there’s no denying how much fun it is to slaughter the cute alien kitty menace.
DEXED brings the classic on-rails shooter genre into a new dimension splendidly and does a superb job of teasing an intriguing concept for a full game.
Shadow Warrior 2's self-referential toilet humour, insanely stylistic combat, bounty of loot and jaw dropping visuals, add up to a thoroughly entertaining and silly game full of gory combat, dick jokes and impressive weaponry. It's great fun if you're not in the market from something serious.
Lethal VR’s lack of Global leaderboards means your high score chasing is restricted to local friends and family, but there’s still plenty here to keep you from taking your headset off.
Alice VR doesn’t have the most engaging puzzles, and its slow pace may be off-putting to some, but this VR ‘walking simulator’ through a sci-fi re-imagining of Wonderland is a beautiful, trippy and clever experience.
It’s largely the same hilarious, gory surgery sim you know and love, but its mechanics don't translate well to VR.
Samurai Sword VR's arcade-style katana swinging and shuriken/kunai throwing is a bit too clumsy and chaotic, requiring less skill and more frantic flailing to succeed. Sure, this can be fun, but ultimately only for a short time. There's simply not enough variety, or accuracy to the hit detection, to make this a title that demands replayability, despite the pull of online leaderboards and the otherwise highly accessible VR, on-rails action.
As cute and appealing as Plantera's presentation is, there's very little 'game' here. Instead, this is an idle game, a click game, one meant to be played between other tasks, and therefore one not well suited to the Wii U. There's still fun to be had, but only in short play sessions that will inevitably become shorter and shorter until, very quickly, there's nothing left to entice you back.
How to Survive 2's base building is a smart addition to the survival and zombie-slaying action of the original, however, beyond that, it feels, looks and plays very much like the original title. As such it feels like more of an expansion than a fully-fledged sequel, and whilst the simple but satisfying combat and co-op option makes it fun, it's not the most innovative or gripping survival game on the market.
Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers is a different kind of spinoff than usual, and a good one at that, with a well-designed strategy system that's very easy to pick up that provides enough tactical depth to be compelling. However, the countless battles can't help but feel repetitive, and it's still a very similar narrative experience to what can be found in other Dynasty Warrior titles.
DiRT Rally was already a great rally simulator, but the PSVR update enhances what was already there by making it that much more immersive and real. That it also makes the racing slightly easier due to depth perception, and that the entire game is compatible with VR and transitions so smoothly, is a testament to the care and attention by Codemasters to implement this technology.
Heaven Island Life is a VR environment rather than a game, with exploration through a physically flawed, sandy tropical game-world its only allure. It's an initially attractive looking place to spend some time, but soon proves to be highly shallow and immersion-breaking after only the merest slither of exploration.
The Crow's Eye cleverly designs a spooky atmosphere that then plays on your expectations wonderfully. Furthermore, an intriguing story that's gradually revealed through well-voiced audio tapes and well-written letters helps build up expectations even more. It certainly lives up to its claim as a psychological horror, but one that'll only put you on edge the first time through.
A stiff challenge, no handholding, and large, open levels is somewhat daunting at first, but spectacular level and character design, sarcastic, fourth wall-breaking humour, and oodles of collectables will quickly grip and immerse you in Yooka and Laylee's quirky world. This is a 3D platforming fan's dream title.